Georgians flock to cast ballots as early in-person voting begins

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Georgians flock to cast ballots as early in-person voting begins

2024-10-17 06:29 Last Updated At：06:31

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgians aren't waiting to vote, with what could be more than 10% of expected turnout casting ballots through Wednesday.

More than 310,000 people voted on Tuesday, the first day of early in-person voting, with another 260,000 more making their choices through Wednesday evening. Another 33,000 mail ballots have also been accepted. That's more than 600,000 votes cast in Georgia, compared to the record 5 million who voted in the 2020 presidential election in the southern battleground state.

On Monday, voters lined up before sunrise, with many saying they long ago decided whether they were choosing Democrat Kamala Harris, Republican Donald Trump, Libertarian Chase Oliver or Green Party nominee Jill Stein. Two other candidates — independent Cornel West and the Party for Socialism and Liberation's Claudia De la Cruz appear on Georgia ballots, but their votes won't be counted after the state Supreme Court ruled they didn't properly qualify.

“I'm excited to vote against Donald Trump and for Kamala Harris,” said Anthony Engleton, a retiree who was voting Tuesday in the Atlanta suburb of Sandy Springs. “The whole history, the record of Trump's crimes and grifts shows he's a con artist who's all about himself.”

Voting in the Gwinnett County suburb of Berkeley Lake, Karen Hall said she had long been ready to support Trump because of her concerns about immigration.

“It’s the most important election in our lifetime,” Hall said. “Our country’s gone to hell in a handbasket and it needs to be set back on the right track. Donald Trump is the only who can fix it.”

Both Democrats and Republicans try to drive their most committed partisans to vote early in Georgia, so they can focus later on less reliable voters. Trump did two events Tuesday in Georgia, while top Democratic surrogates urged on voters in recent days.

The previous first-day record was nearly 137,000 in 2020, and this year's increase reflects a shift in how Georgians vote. In 2020, amid the pandemic, Georgia temporarily made it easy to request a mail ballot online and set up many drop boxes. By this time in 2020, 1.2 million votes had already been recorded.

Voters in Georgia must now physically sign an absentee ballot application, counties are required to mail them later, and the number of drop boxes has been sharply limited. That's all combined to decrease mail ballot requests from 2020, part of a hotly disputed series of voting changes in the state.

Among those who have already cast Georgia ballots are one former president, Jimmy Carter, and one current presidential candidate, Libertarian Chase Oliver.

Oliver joined a line of voters Tuesday morning in the Atlanta suburb of Tucker.

“It always feels weird seeing your name on the screen and you’re selecting yourself — it’s a little surreal,” Oliver said.

The Libertarian is touting himself as the only third-party candidate on the ballot in all 50 states, saying he's an alternative for Republicans and Democrats dissatisfied with their nominees.

Jimmy Carter cast his ballot by mail on Wednesday, according to the Carter Center.

His son Chip Carter said before the family gathered for his father's 100th birthday on Oct. 1 that the former president was “plugged in” to the election.

Kramon reported from Berkeley Lake, Georgia.

Family of Erik and Lyle Menendez call for their release and say they're victims who were vilified

2024-10-17 06:26 Last Updated At：06:31

LOS ANGELES (AP) — More than a dozen family members of Erik and Lyle Menendez made an emotional call for their release from prison, saying they were “brutalized” and sexually abused by their father and then “vilified” by a society that was not ready to hear that boys could be raped.

The news conference in downtown Los Angeles was the largest gathering of the extended family since the brothers’ 1996 sentencing for the killing of their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion more than 35 years ago. The public call for their release — by multiple generations and from both sides of their parents’ families — comes less than two weeks after the Los Angeles County district attorney announced his office would be reviewing new evidence to determine whether the brothers should be serving life sentences.

Several of the family members emphasized that in today’s world — which is more aware of the impact of sexual abuse — the brothers would not have been convicted of first-degree murder. Many details of their story of sexual abuse were not permitted in the trial that led to their conviction.

“The whole world was not ready to hear that boys could be raped,” said Joan Andersen VanderMolen, Kitty Menendez’s sister, adding “today we know better.”

“I had no idea the extent of the abuse they suffered at the hands of my brother-in-law. None of us did," she said, explaining that they were “brutalized in the most horrific ways.”

“We know that abuse has long effects, and victims of trauma sometimes act in ways that are very difficult to understand,” she continued.

Lyle Menendez, who was then 21, and Erik Menendez, then 18, admitted they fatally shot-gunned their entertainment executive father, Jose Menendez, and their mother, Kitty Menendez, in 1989 but said they feared their parents were about to kill them to prevent the disclosure of the father’s long-term sexual molestation of Erik.

Prosecutors at the time contended there was no evidence of molestation. They said the sons were after their parents’ multimillion-dollar estate.

The brothers are currently serving life sentences in state prison without the possibility of parole.

“They tried to protect themselves the only way they knew how,” said Brian A. Andersen Jr., nephew of Kitty Menendez. “Instead of being seen as victims, they were vilified."

“They are no longer a threat to society,” he continued.

The brothers have said they killed their parents out of self-defense after enduring a lifetime of physical, emotional and sexual abuse from them. The family members argue that because of society’s changing views on sexual abuse, that if the trial happened in 2024, the brothers would not have been convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole.

“If Lyle and Erik’s case were heard today, with the understanding we now have about abuse and PTSD, there is no doubt in my mind that their sentencing would have been very different,” said Anamaria Baralt, a niece of Jose Menendez.

But not every family member agrees that they should be released.

Kitty Menendez’s brother, Milton Andersen — who is 90-years-old — said through an attorney that he believes “the appropriate sentence” is life in prison without possibility of parole. Andersen was not available for an interview.

“He believes that there was no molestation that occurred. He believes that the motive was pure greed, because they had just learned that they were going to be taken out of the will,” said Kathy Cady, Andersen’s attorney.

District Attorney George Gascón has said there is no question the brothers committed the 1989 murders, but after his office looks at the new evidence, prosecutors will make a decision on whether a resentencing is warranted in the notorious case that captured national attention.

The evidence includes a letter written by Erik Menendez that his attorneys say corroborates the allegations that he was sexually abused by his father.

Roy Rossello, former member of the Latin pop group Menudo, also recently came forward saying he was drugged and raped by Jose Menendez, the boys’ father, when he was a teen in the 1980s.

Menudo was signed under RCA Records, which Jose Menendez was the head of at the time.

Rossello spoke about his abuse in the 2023 Peacock docuseries “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed.” These allegations are part of the evidence listed in the petition filed last year by the Menendez brothers’ attorney to review their case. Per the petition, Rossello said he was raped twice by Jose Menendez.

A hearing was scheduled for Nov. 29.

The brothers’ attorneys said the family believed from the beginning they should have been charged with manslaughter rather than murder. Manslaughter was not an option for the jury during the second trial that ultimately led to the brothers’ murder conviction, attorney Mark Geragos previously said.

The case has gained new traction in recent weeks after Netflix began streaming the true-crime drama “ Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. ”

Jurors in 1996 rejected a death sentence in favor of life without parole.

The family members said they were going to walk across the street from the press conference to meet with the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office and present arguments for the brothers' release.

Geragos said he hopes to get them released in time for Joan Andersen VanderMolen's 93rd birthday next month.

“There’s nothing she’d like more than to have them home for Thanksgiving,” Geragos said.

——

Associated Press journalists Jaimie Ding and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

This story has been corrected to show Kitty Menendez’s brother’s name is Milton Andersen, not Milton Anderson.

Georgians flock to cast ballots as early in-person voting begins

News

Georgians flock to cast ballots as early in-person voting begins

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